Elio Motors starts working on P5, will return 84 mpg

Elio Motors had disclosed plans to build the P5 which represents the fifth prototype of their frugal three-wheeled vehicle. It will be an evolution of the P4 pictured above and is going to feature a small 0.9-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine coupled to a multi-mode automated manual gearbox developed by Aisin. This hardware setup should enable the model to return a whopping 84 mpg US (2.8 liters / 100 km) which would make it one of the most economical cars in the world.

Elio P4

The production version is programmed to go on sale by mid-2016 and Elio Motors will price it at around $6,800. Before doing that, their plan is to make 26 prototypes named P5 through P30 and all of them will be used for various testing procedures as well as for validation purposes.

The P5 three-wheeler and the production version are being developed to meet the latest safety standards and will benefit from a reinforced roll cage frame, anti-lock brakes, three airbags while the crush zones are going to be 50% larger compared to those of similar cars.

Up until now, almost 43,000 people have made a reservation for the production model which will generate 1,500 jobs at the Shreveport facility while another 1,500 jobs will be made at the supplier partner companies.